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tv   Andrea Mitchell Reports  MSNBC  July 15, 2011 1:00pm-2:00pm EDT

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the american people are not interested in reality tv aspects of who said what and did somebody's feelings get hurt. they're interested in solving the budget problem. and the deficit and the debt. >> house republicans first plan to schedule a vote on the balanced budget amendment. >> we asked the president tout forward a plan, not a speech, a real plan. and he hasn't. we will. >> we'll have the latest on the showdown with david gregory, chuck todd, luke russert and senator john cornyn. she's out the embattled ceo at the center of the u.s. hacking scandal resigns. and soccer mania is sweeping the country. the u.s. women now just one win away from taking it all. their first world cup championship in a dozen years. good day, i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. time is running out with that
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president obama is giving congressional leaders 36 hours to come one a plan to raise the debt ceil and avoid default. today he said we don't need a balanced budget amendment. the proposal republicans are pushing toward a vote next week. the president says he still wants a big deal. but for the first time he's opening the door on senator mitch mcconnell's fall back plan which is gaining momentum on capitol hill. chuck todd was in the briefing room for the news conference. host of "the daily rundown" and luke russert. there was a movement from the president at least towards considering the mcconnell backup plan. what are the chances he still might get what he really wants which is a bigger deal? >> to me -- in a way put together to try to get through this. what you felt was the press conference was about was trying to frame the post game debate,
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if you will. you heard this from the speaker. suddenly they're back to distancing themselves from the debt ceiling. let's get to the debt ceiling part. we're running out of time on that. maybe there's still time to negotiate this grand bargain. that's sort of what i heard out of this. the president will sign anything that gets to his desk that seems to get through both houses of congress at this point. and then after that, maybe there's a conversation about serious tax reform or maybe there's a conversation about serious entitlement reform. he doesn't seem to be demanding that now. >> luke russert, this started on the senate side. mcconnell and reid were cobbling it together. what are the chances that the house republicans that you cover are going to go for it? >> as of right now it's a nonstarter. tim scott a freshman member tea party guy. he's part of the leadership i
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asked him about the mcconnell plan yesterday, he said, quote, it's unworthy, unrealistic and an abdication of responsibility. i think tim scott is really speaking for the majority of those freshman lawmakers who have been so opposed to raising the debt limit unless there's significant spending cuts. that being said what you're seeing now is house republicans moving forward to put forth their own plan. president obama said it was a political vote. this idea of a cut cap and balance bill. it will be voted in the house next week. it allows house republicans to get on the record as saying that they would oppose any debt limit increase unless there would be a balanced budget amendment and only then once there's a budget amendment passed and ratified could you have the $2.4 trillion extension. that's obviously not going to happen. it has no chance. the president would never sign it allow. it allows the house republicans to be on the record as being opposed to any debt limit
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increase unless there's a potential before for substantial cuts. it gives them some cover. when you talk about timing, it's how long will it take for harry reid and mitch mcconnell to figure out some solution which boehner and cantor said thaed be open to at the last second. can they do that in the next few weeks in order to avert this horrific armageddon on the economy. it's not going to happen next week. next week the house is going to proceed the way they want to proceed. it will give them the cover. it's certainly ticking away and there's no clear solution as to what can pass the house republican conference. >> and chuck, do you get the sense that this is the president saying today we expect some votes on the house side. this is to let them not only have political cover, but let off steam, be able to point to something as luke was suggesting and then think might get to something more serious toward the end of next week? >> there's some back channel
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negotiations going on between senate republicans and house republicans so that the deal that is being negotiated between harry reid and mitch mcconnell which by the way white house aides are a part of that negotiation. that's why you know the deal that's happening, what they're putting together is probably going to be the final deal. there is some space as you will, the president eluded to it, they need some space to do a few of these political votes that they're going to do next week to get on the record. after that, you still have the 22nd coming up. it is only july 15th. there is sort of a week to get the politics out of the way specially. and -- especially. and over the weekend put this bill together over the next three to five days. that's what will get delivered about one week from monday is the understanding i have. >> one more than important in there is we're also hearing from the republican aides that
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anything that would come out of the senate between mcconnell and reid along with that is the clean extension. they want to have $1 trillion in cuts there to at least give house republicans the idea that they're at least cutting spending. it's not a free pass which mcconnell originally intended. >> luke russert and chuck todd. we know what you're doing for the next two weekends. thank you both very much. and david gregory we know what he does on the weekend "meet the press." we've watched these sort of political plays before. we both have for many years. you get the sense that something might come together. that everyone doesn't want to take responsibility for what could happen in the markets. experts are telling us it could be like lehman brothers in 2008. it could be fast, it could be rapid. it could be really cataclysmic. >> nobody wants the political blame for that. i think listening to chuck and
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luke, i think the $1 trillion figure is important. that's a big number. it's also a number that's just about been agreed to as part to have biden talks. what i heard the president say today is i can go along with that if that's the price of getting the debt ceiling raised. and still not have any tax hikes. i can do that, if we get more than that in spending cuts, i can't do that unless we raise taxes, too. when chuck says he'll sign what comes to him, i'm curious if it can get above $1 trillion and it will be in the negotiations. here's the bigger point. the bigger point is the president has the political interest to do something big. he wanted to say i dealt with the deficit. i was the one to bring both sides together. it hasn't happened. he does want to frame that post debate that 2012 debate. let's fight about taxes. let's fight about what the american people want. he said, republicans are stand manager the way. the american people want a balanced approach. cut spending, yes. but raise some taxes, too so we can get to a balanced approach
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to dealing with what has been built up over the past decade. that's the debate he wants to have. >> he's positioned himself pretty well and the polling shows that it's beginning to go his way in terms of democrats being ser sooved as those trying to get something done. that's why we've seen him in the last few weeks. he's having news conferences. he didn't come and face the media very often. now he's coming out there positioning himself as the grown up in the room. >> what she's trying to do is hammer away at the other side and continue to vilify the other side. i think critics of the president would say, look, you're doing all these press conferences now. you had a deficit commission. >> why didn't you embrace the deficit commission. >> these are tough things to do. but the reality is that people watching around the country what we do in washington and what legislatures do we have big problems and small solutions. and we can't stand our politics -- our politics can't quite stand up to the problems that we face.
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>> the other interesting dynamic has been we've seen boehner and cantor. we've seen the influence of the tea party republicans that luke was referring to. this really is going to play out over the next year, year and a half in 2012 politics and alsz in congressional politics. >> legislating and compromise are dirty words in washington. that is why they come here. john boehner understands that. he was negotiating with the president. he was legislating. that's what legislatures do. eric cantor as the leader is representing a wing of the house that says no, we're here for some pure reasons. we're not going to deviate. that's what brought us here. let's get a balanced budget amendment. let's make sure we don't raise any taxes. let's cut the spending. that's our mandate. that's the tension right now. and the fight over the future of the speakership. >> david, it couldn't be any bigger than it is right now. this is why everyone is focused on it and you've got the action. join david gregory this sunday
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on "meet the press." who do you have? >> budget chief and turbine and demint debating each other. a special jobs discussion. an economic discussion is our round table. >> jack lou is the key player. everyone agrees he has credibility. republicans like him. democrats like him. they believe his numbers. he's a former budget director and he's got a lot of former deputy secretary of state. this guy has done it all. >> we'll see if more breaks on this tomorrow. >> thank you very much. >> you bet. what would the failure to raise the debt ceiling mean for average americans? the president spoke to that. >> this is not some abstract issue. these are obligations that the united states has taken on in the past. the congress has run up the credit card and we now have an obligation to pay our bills. if we do not, it could have a whole set of adverse consequences. we could end up with a situation, for example, where interest rates rise for
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everybody all throughout the country. effectively a tax increase on everybody because suddenly whether you're using your credit card, trying to get a loan for a car or a student loan, businesses that are trying to make payroll, all of them could end up being impacted as a consequence of a default. >> that's the president's version. david is an economist for "the new york times" and joins us now. you heard the way the president outlined it. you've written a column saying taxes will rise in the end for everyone because there's no other way out. >> eventually. >> eventually is the term. what did you mean by that? >> what i meant is we have such a big budget problem long-term. caused mostly by medicare so some extent by social security and the military as well. the only way to solve it without tax increases involves radical changes to these programs. paul ryan the republican house budget chairman to his credit came up with a plan that in its
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details acknowledged that. if you want a future with no tax increase we have to get rid of medicare many the current iteration. when you look at polls that's not what americans want. in the end people will choose some combination of tax increases and changes to medicare and social security rather than putting all the burden on medicare and social security. >> there are ways to deal with tax loopholes and describe them as revenue raisers or come up with some other euphemism for it. but it takes time. changing the tax code is complicated and long-term. that's not going to happen before august 2nd. >> certainly not. a lot of economists love this idea that you simple plyfy the tax code you maybe even bring down rates, you can still raise revenue through doing that. the problem is the american people don't love that idea. people really like the mortgage deduction. people like the tax break for health insurance. things like raising taxes on the
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affluent is much more popular than some of this loophole closing that could hit the affluent more than the middle class and would have some economic benefits. that's why i think there's some question why even though if you put all the economists in the room and have them negotiate they would choose something that involved a tax simplification plan. it may not happen. we may see the expiration of some portion of all of the bush tax cuts. >> if you raise money on the millionaires alone, you wnt raise enough money for the deficit. >> no. you cannot solve the deficit by taxing high income people. you can get a significant amount of money there. it's not nothing, but it doesn't come close to solving the problem. out matly you need a solution that involves benefit changes for most people or tax increases. >> what about the means testing options on the spending side especially on entitlements, obviously? there's a lot of money in that basket. >> there is a lot of money. i would put that in a large
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category of changes that could affect mideastly the affluent. these are people who have done better than nearly any other economic group in the last 30 years. they are people who have had the biggest tax cuts. you can make some changes there, means testing, the bush tax cuts. it doesn't get you close to all the way there. it gets you a substantial minority of the way there. >> david, can you answer those mostly on the republican side. some in both parties who said we can skate by this. august 2nd is tim geithner's fantasy date. and there's enough money there. take money from social security. float some bonds. what is the reality of that? >> the reality is although we don't know there is every reason to think it would be terrible to do this. the fact is these are debts we've already run up. the debt ceiling is not about should we take on more deficits. these are debts we've run up, the question is do we pay back the people who lent us the money. those people remain willing to lend the united states money right now. the idea they would tell them
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that we are going to default on our debt would be what's called the great forced error in the history of the economic policy. >> what would be the effect on the dollar as the currency that people turn to. >> i'm reluctant to make specific prediction about this because i haven't lived through this. >> none of us have. >> i guess what i would say is you were talking about a case in which is united states voluntarily defaults on its debts. gives people around the world to wonder if we will pay other deficits back. people that are now confident that we will. at a time when the economy is so weak. it's really hard to see how that doesn't create really, really bad economic problems. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. up next, republican senator john cornyn. what are the chances of avoiding armageddon over the debt ceiling? and the british hacking scandal topples a major figure in rue merit murdoch's empire.
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many house republicans are not at all happy with the so-called plan c. the last chance debt deal in quiet negotiations between senator leaders mitch mcconnell and harry reid with some input from the white house. that plan did get an endorsement of sorts today from president obama. >> it is constructive to say that if washington operates as usual and can't get anything done, let's at least avert armageddon. that's -- i'm glad that people are serious about the consequences of default.
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>> texas senator john cornyn is in charge of getzalfing republicans elected or re-elected to the senate as chair of the senate campaign committee. thanks so much for joining us. let's talk about the political fallout in a minute. let's talk about what you heard from the president, the house republicans. where do you think things stand as far as the mcconnell proposal and if that is an option to at least avoid default? >> there's no two things that i feel republicans feel strongly about. one is we believe we should default. the second we hope we ought to raise taxes during a fragile economic recovery a position the president himself held last december. between the mcconnell plan which is actually a last ditch contingency plan. i hope the house is able to pass something and send it over to the senate which will deal with the problem which is excessive spending and broken entitlement programs. it remains to be seen whether the house can get enough votes to pass something and send it over to the senate.
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>> you were one of the original sponsors of the balanced budget amendment. they're not talking about that as a key vote next week. that's not going to deal with the short-term problem to avoid defall. >> that's correct. >> that's basically a feel good measure. it's political points. it's important for the future but it's not important for the now. >> well, in 1997 the balanced budget amendment failed by one vote in the senate. it passed the house and the deficit was $107 billion. the debt was about $5 trillion. today the deficit is $1 nt 35 trillion and the debt is $14.3 trillion. so i think if it was compelling back in 1997 and came within one vote, it's more important today, you're right, know, to tex tent that i would agree we have to do something else now to begin that payment down of the debt and to fix the entitlement programs which may well run out of the
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money in about a decade. we need to do beth. i think deal with the short and midterm and also deal with the long-term which is what a balanced budget amendment would do. >> i know you have to see what can get through the house, but would you support some kind of tax revenue measures, loophole closers, changesing maybe flattening out the code and perhaps even lower rates, but producing more revenue down the road as long as it doesn't kick in until 2013. would you consider something like that if you saw enough spending cuts on the table? >> well, i certainly support tax reform. i thought the president's fis skal commission simpson bowles commission did some good work in identifying tax expenditures that they said by eliminating many of those you could bring down the top right particularly for corporations which would make us more competitive globally. less jobs would be outsourced overseas and more jobs created here in the united states. i wouldn't do it under the
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reduce that we were somehow going to eliminate tax expenditures and use that revenue for more spending. the problem is we don't have a concrete plan from the president. we are waiting for a budget after 800 days. right now we don't know exactly what the president's plan is. >> do you have any concerns about the poll which showed that 48% of americans blame republicans only 34% blame democrats for this mess. >> well, this has been a long time in coming this debt ceiling and certainly republicans and democrats have both contributed to it. although we've seen debt accelerate and deficit spending accelerate under this president with now about 10% of the gross domestic product. now we're seeing debt to gdp or gross domestic product ratios which threateningen the potential of a sovereign debt crisis. if interest rates rise to historic levels from really the low levels they're at now, just
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servicing the debt paying interest on the debt could well crowd out the very safety net programs that protect the most vulnerable as well as our national security spending. this is a very serious issue that's gotten much, much more serious in recent years. >> john cornyn, thanks so much good to see you. have a good weekend. >> thank you. up next, dr. marcus bachmann playing defense against charges of offense. this is "andrea mitchell this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc.
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michele bachmann's husband dr. marcus bachmann is playing defense over the family's counselling clinic which critics say has tried to make gay men turn straight. we have the white house reporter for politico. glenn, this has been controversial. it may play to the base in iowa. today dr. bachmann is denying that he compared people who are gay to barbarians. there's an interview calling it
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a myth. but at the same time we have all heard the tape he said it in a radio interview. how do you explain that? >> how do you explain a lot of things? you know, we have the undercover folks saying this clinic has tried to do this reparation therapy that turns gay folks straight. we had cnn track down a client that contradicts the account. now he says the tape is doctored. i don't know how to explain this. >> we heard what he said, he did call gay people barbarians. he was saying it was in the context of children. that doesn't make any sense either. is this a political negative, a political wash or political plus with her base? >> what's interesting about this with the base you're totally right in the iowa caucuses and south carolina with an extraordinarily conservative base voting i think it will actually help her. i think the issue that's really interesting here. you remember the farm subsidy issue with bachmann's family
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farm receiving frm subsidies. apparently they got $160,000 in federal training money and perhaps medicare and medicaid money for this clinic. so this is a woman who's campaigning against big government and this clinic took a lot of federal and state money. >> one of the things about bachmann is she's rocketed in the polls. she's reaching the base. she has her roots in waterloo, iowa. she's doing so well because she's connecting. she did so well in the new hampshire debate. when you look at these candidates in a stretch of a long campaign, these are the kinds of issues that do come up and, you know, just as mitt romney's been facing questions about his past record in massachusetts. >> i'd go farther and say she's having a big impact on the debt debate in washington. this is, you know, the bachmann position. the -- a couple weeks ago she's far and away on the democratic and republican side far and away the least factual candidate in
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either party. you're right, sooner or later this has to come back and haunt her. >> thanks so much. happy friday to you. coming up next, rupert murdoch's not having such a great friday. his grand apology tour and the big shakeup in his empire. here at home some shocking facts about all that hype of violent crime on the u.s.-mexico border. "a usa today" exclusive paints a "a usa today" exclusive paints a very different picture.y? well, v8 v-fusion juice gives you a full serving of vegetables, plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit. and try our deliciously refreshing v8 v-fusion + tea. ♪ but it just ♪ tes like fruit. ♪ ♪
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the company is responding to unfair attacks by setting the record straight. and just moments ago rupert murdoch met with the family of the murdered teenager who's phone hacking brought this scandal to the attention of the uk public. we go now to london. it was really that child's murder and the hacking -- the revelation that her phone was hacked and that the emails were erased and her family had been so damaged by it that really made it come home. what happened today? >> that's true, andrea. she's really been the face of this crisis. it did spark a lot of anger. it's very interesting. rupert murdoch goes to this meeting with this family. the 80-year-old owner of news corp., the second largest media company many the world. work with a working class british family. he walks outside the hotel just afterwards and is met by a jeering crowd, a small crowd that had gathered there.
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you can hear them yelling. his security team that is with him in this moment appears to decide it is not safe for him to be out there and moves him back into the hotel. but murdoch was not deterred. not surprisingly, he came back out and spoke with the media at which point he said he saw the family. he was appalled as the owner of this company when he had heard what happened. and he felt that he needed to apologize. this caps off a remarkable day here really when you look at rebecka brooks starting the day off by resigning and then accepting her resignation. >> in fact, stephanie, they say that they're going to have this independent committee look into the problems. that's what james murdoch announced. but that's not going to settle it. parliament is going to hear from many of these key players we believe next week. >> yes, they're going to be questions, tough questions from members of parliament on tuesday.
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the murdochs, james and rupert murdoch will be at the session. so will rebecka brooks with now her former employer. the investigation on the phone hacking crisis and they don't want to jeopardize that investigation. they don't want to answer the questions. any questions that might jeopardize it. they might not say much. what you will see is anger on display. these members of parliament are going to give them a grilling. andrea? >> stephanie, it's an extraordinary drama on all sides. and thanks to you very much and we're now joined by msnbc's own martin bashir. and no stranger to the inner workings of the murdoch empire. we know that the fbi is opening an investigation here. there have been calls from members of congress to look into it. have you ever seen anything like this? did you ever expect that rue merit murdoch would be in a
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scrum in london visiting that family? >> no. that was shock and disturbing. it's an indication of quite the depth of anger because what's happened in britain is the public has come to realize that most of their politicians were in the hands of this man that he had enormous influence over them. that he had the power to reward some and punish others that every prime minister really over the past 25 years has felt inclined to visit him, hear what he has to say, take account of his views. and i think when all of this came out and they saw what his news empire was actually doing to ordinary members of the public, the public has erupted. that's why you saw what happened today. i think that -- i wouldn't advise him to walk down the streets in london at the moment on his own. there is a white hot feeling of anger about how families' phones have been hacked of children who are dead of servicemen whose bodies were returned to the
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united kingdom. whose families phones were allegedly hacked. gordon brown the former prime minister saying that the medical records for his disabled child were stolen by criminals from a london hospital. imagine, the kind of plethora of allegations, andrea. it's disturbing for -- even one of these would be disturbing. when you collate them all, it's horrendous. >> and before we leave this, rebecka brooks, this figure, that editor was such a huge player. let's talk about her for a moment. we don't want her resignation today to go unremarked. >> absolutely. it was said that rupert murdoch of course has four daughters. but his favorite was the adopted daughter, if you like rebecka brooks. on her 40th birthday he actually gave her a painting by the famous british artist elis hourry. the painting is believed to be worth over v 9 million pounds. that's the kind of level of affection that he had for her.
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she worked for him for 22 years. most of her working life. she'd risen up at every level in his industry from niz business from being a runner in the office to being a reporter to being a features editor and then being the editor of the news of the world then the editor of the sun. and the chief executive of news international. they were incredibly close. i think that's one reason why it took so long for her to resign. i honestly do think that she realized her position was untenable. but rupert murdoch as he arrived in london you'll remember two days ago when he was asked by a journalist who's your priority, he was standing next to brooks and she said she is. that's an indication of the kind of affection that he feels for her. that's why it's taken so long for her to stand down. >> martin, extraordinary. i'm still trying to get my head around nine million pounds according to some calculations would be about $18 million worth of birthday gifts. >> the dollar is not that weak.
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it would be around $15.5 to $16 million it's a lot of money. it's an example of the kind of affection that this man had for this woman. >> this is a happy birthday indeed. not such a happy day today. thank you. martin's program 3:00 every day on msnbc. we've all heard the claims like arizona governor jan brewer remember when she talked about headless bodies in her state's desert from the deadly spillover of the drug war in mexico? "usa today" decided to find out and the claims are widely exaggerated. we have the reporters who did all the digging and they join us now. thanks so much for sharing your information. first of all, kevin, first to you. what -- how off the mark is the common wisdom, the conventional wisdom about the american side of the border and how americans are suffering crimes spillover
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from the mexican drug war? >> if you talk to people down there as we did in various places that we traveled, the rhetoric was quite off the mark. but more than that, i think the power of this piece is that it attempted to strip away the emotion that has been drawn into the immigration debate. and look just at the data, the hard data. and what we found over the past ten years more than the past ten years and in an examination of 1600 agencies along the border that murder, robbery, and other violent crime in those border communities was occurring at lesser rates than most other places in their states. >> these places, these cities were safer than most other cities. 83% of americans according to statistics in your piece, 83% of americans believe that the crime near the border is higher than many the rest of the country.
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but that's really not the case. >> it's really striking that you get -- that has become so engrained in the american conscious. when we went down there i remember talking to one person in san diego he was explaining his friend in l.a. had that very same impression of what life was like for him living so close to the border. so we -- i was in california. we had a reporter in arizona, kevin was in texas. there are those who make the claim that there is unreported data. if these numbers are true that we still need to build up the border to make sure that crime does not spill over. the vast majority of folks that we spoke to said it's something that does that the apply to how they rid. we're talking california, arizona, texas, you found that they are actually safer cities than the rest of the country? >> i was in el paso.
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and el paso as you know is right next door to juarez one of the most dangerous cities in the world. last year they had 3400 murders. >> much more dangerous than iraq, afghanistan, than the war zones according to our own mark potter from the mexican side. >> people have compared it to that level of violence. but just on the other side of the river, the trickle of water that the river is there, there were only five murders last year in el paso. it's up a bit this year to about 14. but the contrast is striking. a lot of the community leaders down there feel like the rhetoric that they hear from washington has painted a picture of their community that is not part of reality. >> kevin johnson and allen gomez. you've done a great job. let's hope that you contributed to a brand new narrative and
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people can understand the truth. thank you both so much. up next, will the american women prove to be an irresistible force? we have anne thompson she's in frankfurt on soccer fever. this is "andrea mitchell reports." wow. it's the mr. clean magic eraser bath scrubber. [ bottle #2 ] i heard it came from space. no. from a very clean alien civilization. that's crazy. crazy clean. what?! come on. [ male announcer ] mr. clean magic eraser bath scrubber. its clean is out of this world. handle more than 165 billion letters and packages a year. that's about 34 million pounds of mail every day. ever wonder what this costs you as a taxpayer? millions? tens of millions? hundreds of millions? not a single cent. the united states postal service doesn't run on your tax dollars. it's funded solely by stamps and postage. brought to you by the men and women of the american postal workers union. ♪ ben and his family live on this block.
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as with all medicare supplement plans, you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare, get help paying for what medicare doesn't... and save up to thousands of dollars. call this toll-free number now. i'm thomas rokts. coming up on "news nation" today, lessons in cursive handwriting will no longer be taught in elementary school. students will spend more time learning how to type. do you think learning cursive is important for our young kids or a waste of time? in a few hours los angeles bracing for gridlock as a huge stretch of one of the country's busiest highways shuts down. we're going to bring you a live report from l.a. "news nation" starts in 15 minutes. the u.s. women could make history on sunday after rocketing through the world's best competitors.
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the american world cup team is only one match away from the first world cup championship since 1999. nbc's anne thompson is in frankfurt, germany, where sunday's championship match will be held and joins us now. the fever here is extraordinary. what about fans, american fans in frankfurt? >> you know, it's a little quieter here. people obviously in france further were hoping that germany would get into the finals. germany was defeated by japan that's who the u.s. will play on sunday, andrea. and japan is very much like the french team that the u.s. defeated on wednesday. they are a very technical team. very skilled at handling the ball. they're a smaller team than the u.s. they only have two players that measure up to a'7". everybody else is under 5'7". so -- i'm told by sports writers including from "the new york times" that they are technically superior team to the united states. what the united states brings to
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the game is heart and this never say die attitude that we saw in the game against brazil and then against france on wednesday. but these are two teams and two countries who are both looking for a feel good story. japan, of course, because of the earthquake tsunami and then the disaster at the fukushima nuclear plant. and the united states because of everything you've been talking about this hour, the debt ceiling and all of the bad economic news. you've got two countries vying for the same thing. a good story, a victory on sunday. >> our hearts are with 3 japanese people because of what they suffered, you're right, america really needs a victory right now. this has been a pretty miserable period. i think in fact this is the anniversary this weekend of the famous jimmy carter speech back when which didn't use the term malaise, but referred to all the difficulties that they were feeling politically and we feel it so politically and we are feeling so profoundly now, and what about the stars
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hope solo and abbey wambach and they are becoming so important to women sports and the male fans all over the country. >> oh, absolutely. i had the chance to speak to both of them today and ask them, back home people are so excited about that, and do you feel this here? and what is incredible, andrea, is that both women are very, very focused. they know that the job is not over yet. yes, they got to the finals, but in ordered to make history, they have one more win, and that is their focus. and they are very excited that the people back home are happy, but their focus is on sunday and coming away with that trophy. >> and by the way, you will have visitors because the american delegation and the official white house delegation is going to be led by dr. jill biden and chelsea clinton will be there, too, and have a lot of fun. >> and a former soccer player. we wish you were here. >> have fun, anne. well, there is still time and a
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plane. thank you, anne thompson. and what political story will be making headlines in the next 24 hours is next right here on "andrea mitchell reports." n until i see smoke. so pantene said, "breakage and split ends? no problem." they gave me this pantene called breakage to strength. [ female announcer ] the keratin protection pro-v system helps prevent then repair split ends. zero fear of breakage, 100% more strength. no regrets, just health. i'm not giving up the heat. [ female announcer ] the breakage to strength system from pantene. and i count on social security. here's what i'm not... a pushover. right now, some in washington want to make a deal cutting the social security and medicare benefits we worked for. with billions in waste and loopholes, how could they look at us? maybe we seem like an easy target... until you realize... there are 50 million of us.
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we are obviously running out of time, and so, what i have said to the members of congress is that you need over the next 24 to 36 hours to give me some sense of what your plan is to get the debt ceiling raised. >> so, which political story will be making headlines in the next 24 hours? maybe we should say the next 24 or the next 36. msnbc contributor jonathan capehart is an editorial writer for the "washington post" and jonathan, before we talk about the deficit negotiations, if they do or do not happen in the next 24 or 36 howevers i want to bring you up to date on something that our own mike is
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kof is isikoff is reporting is that the there is going to be an investigation into the rupert murdoch deals here in the u.s. so, back to the negotiations, is this behind the scenes with jack lou and other leaders behind the scenes? >> well, he is looking for something between 24 and 36 hours and if there isn't as been reported, he is calling them back to the white house sunday the talk about, where do we go from here? in the conference he laid out three options. the optimal option is a big deal, the $4 trillion deal to bring down the debt and the deficit, and the middle is the $2 trillion deal and the third option he described as the least favorable option is the no cuts
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at all, but lift the ceiling. >> jonathan capehart, and have a great weekend and i hope we are not all working and that is going do it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." go women's soccer. we will have more reports monday on the show, and intelligence chair dianne finestein and actor gary sinese is going to join us. we will have go over to thomas who has more on "newsnation." >> thank you, andrea. president obama said it is decision time on the debt ceiling negotiations. and democratic congresswoman yvette clark will join me live to talk about this. and rupert murdoch meets with the family of the murdered teen at the center of the "news of the world" hacking scandal and offers an apology. this is as the newspaper's highest exec steps down. "newsnation" is minutes away.
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right now on "newsnation," too close for comfort.